Declining Culture - Anonymous employee HackerOne Employee Review

2.0
Dec 9, 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Strong brand and market leader Doing good for the internet Great community My early years were great. There was a unique culture and expectation that we were doing great things. Lots of scrappy folks who could get stuff done.

Cons

Culture has taken a nose-dive since the new CEO came on board with a lot of solid workers and old timers jumping ship. The company is way behind and stagnant. Over the years, the company took away a lot of unique benefits that made them appealing and never added new benefits. No 401k match or bonus structure. The new CEO lacks EQ and comes across as super stiff. Under her tenure, we moved away from a completely remote first culture to a "hub model" with some of the most expensive cities in the country for talent, which alienated those not in a hub city and raised costs. Leadership likes to talk about how we needed to move away from the old way of doing things, yet I haven't seen this new leadership do anything of merit in the time they've been in. A lot of bloat and bad decisions have made the tech stack hard to manage.

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HackerOne Response
5mo
Thanks for taking the time to write us a review! As we continue to grow, our intention is to evolve our culture to support our company goals and deliver on our mission. Through those efforts, we're excited to continue making meaningful strides toward fulfilling our long-term vision. We appreciate your feedback on your experience and wish you all the best in your next role.

Explore other reviews about HackerOne

5.0
May 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Very clear interview process and onboarding steps. -Great benefits.

Cons

None that I can think of.

2.0
Jan 8, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- The coworkers are genuinely amazing: smart, kind, and deeply supportive. Many people truly care about doing the right thing and helping each other succeed. - The mission is meaningful. Supporting the global community of ethical hackers is powerful, and the work has real impact on improving security across the internet.

Cons

- Since the arrival of the new CEO, nearly the entire C-suite has been replaced in under a year. This has created an environment of fear, risk aversion, and excessive CYA behavior. - HackerOne used to value transparency and open dialogue. “An honest question gets an honest answer” was more than a motto—it was lived. Today, people are afraid to ask honest questions, and answers are often vague corporate speak rather than real explanations. - A new AI engineer role was created with a pay band roughly 40% higher than existing software engineers. In practice, some software engineers are doing the same work for significantly less pay, which has caused frustration and morale issues. - The company once had a strong, people-first culture. That culture has eroded to the point where layoffs have occurred while employees were on maternity leave. - A newly hired VP in engineering focused on AI appears more interested in empire-building and optics with the C-suite than in empowering teams. Accountability is demanded without corresponding agency, and blame is often pushed downward when decisions don’t work out.

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